Elizabethtown College's mission is:

Elizabethtown College provides a transformative educational experience that cultivates personal strengths and develops a passion for lifelong learning and purposeful work.

A Transformative Educational Experience

The impact of an Elizabethtown College education is long-lasting and far-reaching because it is deeply transformative. Students acquire new habits of mind and heart—some in the course of the undergraduate experience, others as students grow beyond college.

The Qualities of Our Education

Our educational experience blends a high standard of scholarship with four signature attributes, which include commitments to educate our students in a relationship-centered learning community, to foster in our students international and cross-cultural perspectives, to complement classroom instruction with experiential-learning opportunities, and to prepare our students for purposeful lives and meaningful work.

Relationship-Centered Learning

Our educational programs engage students in ways that capture their most profound attention, confront them with learning experiences that are compelling, and call out from them responses that reach beyond what even they thought possible. In this learning community, our faculty members and other employees demonstrate their passion for their subjects and for continued learning so that our students see how compelling deep engagement is. Students receive personal attention, as all employees commit to expressing sincere and genuine interest in the educational success of our students. Our College's classes deliberately are kept small to support our students' individual needs and challenge them to grow.

International and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Elizabethtown offers a globalized curriculum and co-curriculum. Programs of study and development help students understand and effectively engage with other cultures and the globalization of life and work. Our staff includes faculty members and other employees who are citizens of countries from around the world, who speak a multitude of languages, and who have had myriad study and residential experiences on other continents. Students study alongside students from other cultures. Additionally, they encounter our international world when they visit, study in or live in cities as diverse as Harrisburg, Philadelphia, London, Beijing and Quito.

Experiential Learning

Elizabethtown seeks to broaden the contexts for student learning by fostering educational experiences through which students learn by doing. Through this experiential learning, students develop the aptitude to link theory and experience, and they are better prepared to continue learning throughout their lifetime. These opportunities are available through internships and externships, field placement assignments, independent and collaborative research projects, service-learning and civic engagement, leadership development and campus enjoyment.

Purposeful Life Work

In both the curriculum and cocurriculum, the College's educational program fosters an understanding of education for a life of purpose based on a holistic model of student development that integrates career development; reflection on vocation, meaning and life; and a commitment to civic engagement. As a result, graduates of Elizabethtown are prepared to make the world a better place. They do so, in part, by living in ways that reflect their individual commitments, respond to the needs of others, and value personal and ethical integrity.

For:

Elizabethtown College does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, possession of a general education development certificate as compared to a high school diploma, or any other legally protected status. This commitment applies but is not limited to decisions made with respect to hiring and promotion, the administration educational programs and policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other College administered programs. Discrimination or harassment of any kind is strictly forbidden.